From two-finger waves to culture wars … ABC staff make final pitch for board role

High-profile staff, including Indira Naidoo and Laura Tingle, are among those vying for the staff-elected board position.

ABC board hopeful Indira Naidoo.

ABC staff have just one week left to lodge their votes for a staff-elected seat on the board of the public broadcaster and candidates have been peppering staff with emails to give their final pitches.

Among those vying for a position includes political journalist Laura Tingle, presenter Indira Naidoo, business reporter and MEAA-backed candidate Dan Ziffer, Middle East correspondent Tom Joyner, host of The Drum and voice referendum correspondent Dan Bourchier, rights clearance and research co-ordinator Alison Wall and head of Indigenous, diversity and inclusion Kelly Williams.

Candidates have been given permission to send only two emails each to staff with a pitch for the board position and on Thursday Naidoo made her last attempt at winning votes.

“I’ve travelled along the eastern seaboard and country NSW, meeting so many of you in Brisbane, Sydney, Bega and Melbourne in between my daily on-air radio and television commitments,” she wrote in an email.

“You’ve told me you want the same things – wage fairness, career progression, a review of the Ultimo/Parramatta relocation and better resourcing for divisions outside Sydney.”

Naidoo has been vocal in her opposition to the ABC’s plan to move its Sydney headquarters in Ultimo to the Parramatta in the western suburbs – the plan is 75 per cent of Sydney staff will move there by 2025.

The staff-elected board position is held by radio producer Jane Connors, who has the backing of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance. Her five-year tenure ends on April 30.

Joyner, who is based in Turkey, sent an email to staff on Thursday morning titled, “bush salute” and praised those staff working outside of the major cities.

He said he worked in the ABC’s Kalgoorlie’s office in 2018 and 2019, before moving to Canberra and learnt many skills in the bush which included “instinctively raising two fingers over the steering wheel at passing drivers once I get 50km out of any town”.

Laura Tingle. Picture: Getty Images

Dan Bourchier.

Previously telling staff in correspondence he wanted to change the way the public broadcaster operates to attract younger audiences, Joyner said the ABC board lacks diversity and “as a young person of colour, I want to change that”.

“The regions are also where ABC journos and content-makers of the future are being modelled,” he said.

“You really do it all. And I know the feeling of being stretched too thin, and that there isn’t nearly enough recognition from elsewhere in the ABC for that”.

Earlier this month Tingle told staff that while she is a member of two unions – the MEAA and the Community and Public Sector Union – she refused to accept their endorsement for the board-elected position.

She went on to note: “The ABC has often found itself at the centre of intensifying political culture wars”.

“I confess I was shocked by how twitchy the ABC was to outside attack when I joined it in 2018,” she wrote.

“But it has been a particularly bruising period under the former government, and with the ongoing and daily assault on the ABC and its reporters from News Corp.”

Ziffer on Wednesday said in his email to staff and his involvement in recent pay negotiations which are yet to be completed but likely to see staff receive an 11 per cent pay rise over the next three years.

“We’re home on what’s been a bruising deal to improve our pay and conditions,” he wrote.

“We’ve won huge improvements, together, but it’s shown us a lot.

“I need your support – your vote, your preference – to get on the ABC board and cement a strong and relevant public broadcasting future, and make sure staff interests are protected.

The voting closes at the end of the month before the result is announced in April.